A New Leaf
by Duck Life
Summary: This is Alice's story. How she found out about the Cullens and how she dealt with her vampirism. Part One of the Family Tree series. JxA. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_Light. I could feel it. I could see it creeping past the weak spots in my eyelids. It was strange, not a thing I was used to. I was disturbed to realize that I was afraid. Afraid of the light, because, for so much of my life, I had been in darkness. I knew darkness. It was safe. It was sane, the sanity in the house of insanity. That was where I had been, where I was. I knew it, I knew why I was there…why…And then it all slipped away._

I woke up sore. It wasn't exactly the kind of soreness that you felt from falling off something or being beaten, but more like the soreness you'd feel after getting surgery. Something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I opened my eyes. I was lying on a stone bench in a park, some sort of monument. There were other benches like the one I was stretched across in a circle, surrounding the statue in the middle. It was of a fierce looking man riding a horse. The horse was standing on its back legs. The sky above me was gray and cloudy, as if it were about to rain. I decided that I would stand up and get a better view of my surroundings, and suddenly, I was standing, without making any conscious effort to. It was strange. I wondered if I had been injected with some sort of drug.

Suddenly, my throat burned. I reached for it and froze. It was hard, like stone. My neck was completely solid, as if I were a statue. In that instant, I felt a gnawing fear. I wasn't who I was before…before whatever had happened. There had to have been some sort of change, because I was…different. I was someone other than the other me. I didn't even know her name. I didn't know my name now. I stared at my hand. It was white, and flawless. Like an ice sculpture. _Alice. _My hand was talking to me…and I listened to it.


	2. Chapter 2

I stood for a while, dazed and disoriented. Something strange was going on. It was…inhuman. I decided to list everything I knew and try to come up with a conclusion. My skin was pale white, as hard as stone, and flawless. Perfect. I traced my face. My lips were full, my eyes were large, and, from what I could tell, I had a perfect complexion. My throat still burned. I shook my head. I didn't want to be…whatever I was. I was something. And it wasn't good.

I heard footsteps, padding quietly and stealthily behind me. I stiffened. _Danger, danger, danger,_ warned my mind, but I turned around anyway. About fifty feet away there was a man. His dark hair was tied loosely in a ponytail. His skin was pale and white, like mine, and he was absolutely still. But the scariest part was his eyes. They were infinitely black in the center, and rimmed with crimson. And they were staring at me.

I bolted, and then stopped immediately. I was much, much too fast. I was already half a mile away from the small park. It couldn't be real, but it got me away from the terrifying man. So I kept running. I ran and ran, but I never got tired. I never slowed down. The forest was no more than a greenish blur beside me. I felt strong, invincible. Finally, I stopped. My breathing would be heavy, my side would hurt, my heart would be pounding, and my brain would be spinning. Nothing happened. I felt fine. I wasn't even sweating. I felt my chest…it was still. Completely still, and frozen. My heart wasn't beating. I wondered if it ever had been.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't long before I came to the conclusion that I was hungry. I needed something to eat. Sneaking quietly, for I had no money, I crept into a local bakery at midnight. Strangely, I didn't feel tired. No one was there, and the lock was easy to pick. It looked like heaven to me: huge loaves of fluffy bread donned the counters, some hiding nuts or raisins, Danishes cuddling to each other, pastries looking cool and beautifully frosted, and doughnuts strewn haphazardly on a shelf. It looked delicious, but strangely, it didn't smell so. I ignored it and grabbed a loaf of bread. I was so hungry that I bit into it without waiting to slice it. Yuck! It was awful! I tried another, and it was worse. What was wrong with this bakery? I was so hungry…And then I smelled something else. It was amazing, mouthwatering, delectable. Perhaps the bakery had made something edible…I hopped quickly behind the counter and wandered towards the smell. It wasn't coming from a pastry, but something else…someone…I didn't pay attention. I just pounced, and drank thirstily. It wasn't until I was done that I realized what I was-what I had to be. _Impossible…_and in those next few days, I wished so desperately that I could sleep. But I couldn't. Because I was a…a…_vampire_.


	4. Chapter 4

I was sitting on the ground, my back against a tree. My face was in my hands. I didn't want to think. I didn't want to live. I didn't want to _be_. If I was some crazed bloodsucking freak, then the world was better off without me. I tried to convince myself that life as a monster was worse than no life at all. I didn't know my real name, I didn't have any sort of past, and, as far as I could tell, my future was mostly massacres and dark alleys…I stopped. How had I seen that? As I had been thinking of my future, for a moment, I saw, very clearly, the dark alley that I had imagined. But it wasn't anything like imagination. It was like a picture. Like I was looking at it. I rubbed my temples fiercely. Maybe I was insane. I closed my eyes again, wondering if I could look into the future again. I saw something much different than the dark alley. It was a family, I could tell by looking at it. Five other vampires stood together. Their eyes were buttery and golden. They appeared to be smiling. I smiled, too. Suddenly, a sixth figure stood with them. It was…_me_. I had my arm around somebody, but their figure was blurred and distorted. I couldn't describe anything about them.

My eyes snapped open. I felt different. Minutes before, I had been yearning for death. Now, I felt strange. I knew the difference. I had a purpose now. I had a reason to be here. I needed to find that other person. I needed to bring them to the family. _My family_, I tried to think, but it was difficult. Who would want me?


	5. Chapter 5

I was lying on the ground, trying for the umpteenth time to fall asleep. For some reason, ever since what I called "The Change", I hadn't been able to sleep. It had been two months since The Change, and I hadn't slept a wink. I also seemed to be able to exist without blinking. Once I experimented to see if I still needed to breathe. I didn't.

I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could, but I knew it was in vain. Unexplainably, I was now an organism that needed very little to survive. Maybe I was dead. Though I shied away from that thought, I could not ignore the fact that it had popped into my head frequently in the past few days. The worst part was that I suspected that I wasn't only dead- I was a demon. What else would attack a man, drink his blood, and enjoy it?

I knew the answer, and had been denying it since I had realized it. I _was _a vampire. It was hard to comprehend that, but it was true: I was a blood-drinker. However, I did not assume that I had no future other than murder and cruelty. I knew that I didn't have to be a monster.

A while ago, I had seen a vision of myself, surrounded by a family. It was quite enjoyable, and I sought this picture's reality. Since then I had seen many apparitions of them, and I had learned about their way of life. They were _good _vampires. They hunted animals instead of people, and tried to live as humanely as possible. I watched them often, and could remember their names. They were called the Cullens. The leader was Carlisle. His wife was Esme, and then there were three children: Emmett, Rosalie, and Edward. I yearned to be a part of their family. I hoped that they were real, that I would find them, and, when and if I did, that they would accept me.

My eyes were still closed, and I wasn't falling asleep. I sighed and rolled over, though I wasn't uncomfortable. It had recently been bothering me that I was comfortable in even the most impossible positions. I could tell that I was facing the sky. I inhaled, taking in all of the woodsy smells. Then, suddenly, I wasn't lying on the ground.

I was standing on the side of a street, staring at something in the middle of it: A man. His arms were spread, his eyes were closed, and he was facing an oncoming truck swerving toward him. Did I imagine the bored expression on his face? Without stopping to think, I propelled myself toward him, elided with him, ignoring the deafening crash of skin against skin that should have informed me of what he was, and pushed him off of the street. We flew into a darkened alley. I could hear panicked shouts as the investigation began, but disregarded the entire affair. I was staring at the man I had rescued as he watched me. Without saying a word, our hands slowly reached up and met each other's. The pallor of our skin was identical. His eyes were red.

My eyes snapped open where I lay on the forest floor. I had finally realized who the mystery Cullen was.


	6. Chapter 6

I walked hurriedly through the crowded streets of the city, searching for the stranger in my vision. However, I had a feeling that he was not a stranger, or that he would not be a stranger for long. Ever since I had had the disconcerting vision of him nearly being run over, the blurry figure in my visions of the Cullens had taken a definite shape and appearance: It was him.

It bothered me that I had to refer to the man in my vision as "him", but I didn't know how I could get his name, until I found him. My gaze flicked constantly and nervously to the street, looking for a man standing in the direct middle of the road, his arms spread.

I knew that I was trying to hide from something else that I had realized. Of course he was a vampire. I knew this, and yet I did not want to comprehend it. It may have been because the only vampire I had ever actually seen has been evil. I shuddered upon recalling his threatening stance and frightening glare. What really amazed me was the fact that, though I could remember nothing of my other life, I understood so much. How had I known that a vampire drank blood? I had no memory of ever learning this, and yet I knew it. And so, because of this, knowledge frightened me.

I shook these thoughts from my head irritably and continued on my way. The crowds on the busy sidewalks slowly began to thin, and eventually I noticed that it was darker now, and the moon was a thin crescent. I frowned. In my vision, there had been daylight. Was it a false apparition? Was I truly insane?

Suddenly, I froze. For some unfathomable, inexplicable reason, I had worded the question exactly that way in my head. It made no sense. If I was wondering if I was "truly insane", it implied that I was believed to be insane. I had no memory of ever being accused of insanity, and yet the question had appeared, carefully worded to show me that there had been another life, and that things had not always been this way.

Who was I?


	7. Chapter 7

Upon gaining the frightening new knowledge of the definite existence of another life for me, I had seated myself on the ground and leaned against the wall of some unknown building. I felt strange- nauseous, and yet cold and completely unfeeling. I heard the world around me quiet and silence itself, though out of respect for me or simply because they slept, I did not know. For the first time that I could remember, my head ached. I searched for some comforting vision of the Cullens, but could find none.

Strangely, I began to feel a pull from behind the wall, as if long, invisible fingers had grasped me by the chest and tugged, unable to pull me through the wall. My brow furrowed, and in an instant I was erect. The previously bustling streets were completely empty, with not a soul in sight. I began walking around the front of the building, looking for an explanation for the pull. It seemed to get stronger as I approached the door of the building. I glanced at the sign above it. It was red and faded, with big black letters that declared the place "Honey's House of American Dining". It looked nice, so I went in, wondering why I was entering. I knew that I couldn't eat food.

The interior of the restaurant was all yellow, faded, and peeling. It looked like it was supposed to mimic the Old West. I subconsciously made myself as small as possible and maneuvered over to a rusty barstool. I perched on it so that I was facing the rest of the place. A couple of small families sat around the edges of the restaurant on dilapidated tables. A surprising amount of couples were eating there- it did not seem like a romantic place. A bearded old man stood behind the bar, cleaning off what looked like a beer stain on the counter, and a young waitress hummed merrily whilst delivering a basket of bread to one of the couples. Done with my analysis, I turned around on the stool, only to whip back around again when the door opened.

The reason for this was that, at that moment, the pulling sensation had gotten unexplainably unbearable. I felt like I would fall off of the seat. I jumped down as quickly as I could without attracting attention and made my way to the gentleman at the door. He did not look surprised to see me. The waitress watched us warily. Until I reached him, I had not recognized the man. When I finally got a good look at him, I knew that he was the man- the vampire- from my vision.

"I've been waiting for you," I said quietly.

He just ducked his head like a good southern gentleman and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am."

**THE END**

**A/N: I am sorry if this ending isn't what you wanted. I may write a sequel. I know this isn't exactly what it sai din the title, but I really wanted to end it this way.**


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